The Prologue is the first mission of Onimusha: Way of the Sword that throws Miyamoto Musashi straight into a sword duel, a very rude gang of Yoshioka students, and his first encounter with the Genma. It also teaches nearly every combat habit you need early on, from blocking and parrying to Break Issen, Reflex Dodge, environmental weapons, Soul Absorption, and the mysterious Oni Gauntlet. Our walkthrough will guide you through all the objectives to complete Onimusha: Way of the Sword Prologue and offer necessary tips in between.
Miyamoto Musashi Intro
The Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s journey kicks off with a cinematic introducing our protagonist, Miyamoto Musashi—a lethal blade for hire who is somehow equal parts cool, eccentric, and goofily unbothered by chaos.
When the camera first finds him, Musashi is dead to the world, taking a peaceful nap along a muddy riverbank while bloated corpses float right past him. He wakes up, casually stretches, and takes out a rice ball to cure his hunger. Before he can have a single bite, a crew of starving kids and an adorable stray dog approach him with pleading eyes. Even though Musashi plays the tough guy, his soft spot immediately betrays him; he gives his meal to the kids, pats the dog, and ambles off down the road.
Challenge Yoshioka Seijuro
After that, Musashi goes to a run-down mountain village to challenge Yoshioka Seijuro, the master of the famed Yoshioka School. The duo meets at the crest of a steep, crumbling staircase in an open courtyard by a ruined shrine, the perfect spot for the game to show you the ropes of combat.
Your encounter with Seijuro is an interactive combat tutorial that teaches you the core gameplay mechanics you will use throughout your dealings with Genma:
- Lock On: Press the Right Thumbstick (R3) on controller or Middle Mouse Button on PC to lock your camera onto Seijuro, keeping him in your sights so you can maneuver around him without manual camera adjustments.
- Movement: Use the left stick or movement keys while locked on to circle around the enemy.
- One-Handed Attack: A light, swift strike that forms the core of your fast combo strings to chip away at Seijuro and pressure him at open defenses. Press the light attack button (Square/X/Left Click) six times to complete the tutorial.
- Two-Handed Attack: The Two-Handed Attack is slow but carries much more force. Seijuro will block your light strikes, so this is the move to use when he turtles behind his guard. If you’re on the Defensive layout, press Y on Xbox, Triangle on PlayStation, or R on your keyboard. Using the Aggressive layout? Go for B on Xbox or Circle on PlayStation instead. Whenever you see an enemy blocking your regular combos, swap to this move to smash right through their defense.
- Block: Hold the Guard button (L1 / LB / Right Click) to raise your guard. Hold it down to absorb three incoming strikes. You can walk slowly while holding block, which allows you to reposition safely without being exposed to damage.
Defeat Yoshioka Seijuro
Once you have learned the basic combat moves, why not try them on a bad guy? Use the one- and two-handed attack swings to damage Seijuro while blocking his counter slashes.
Every combatant has a red Stamina bar below their yellow Health bar, including you, Musashi. When you land strikes and break an enemy’s guard, this stamina meter depletes. Once Yoshioka’s stamina is fully depleted, he becomes winded and stops in an exhausted stance.
That is your cue for Break Issen.
Stamina and Break Issen
Get close while Seijuro is stunned and press the attack button to execute a high-damage Break Issen attack. The game uses this moment to demonstrate how important stamina management is for the rest of the adventure. Break Issen deals a heavy burst of damage, so getting comfortable with stamina depletion now will save you plenty of pain against tough enemies later.
Land the Break Issen to trigger the cutscene. Musashi delivers a critical slash across Seijuro’s chest, leaving the master severely wounded and claiming the school’s jewel as his reward.
Unsurprisingly, Seijuro’s loyal fan club won’t let their master’s public humiliation slide, banding together into an angry mob to avenge his honor. A smug disciple steps forward, claiming their school is “invincible” and that they can’t let their master lose a duel. Musashi roasts them right back with a speech about the hypocrisy of jumping someone to protect a fraud: “It’s only going to look worse if all of you can’t kill me either.”
Musashi is ready to take on the front row until an entire battalion of armed swordsmen marches up the stairs. Realizing the odds have shifted from a duel to a mob hit and being the legendary vagabond he is, Musashi handled it with grace—by turning tail and running for his life.
What’s next is slapstick theater—a chaotic chase with frantic sprinting, Three Stooges-level hijinks, and a quick cameo from our favorite stray dog who, despite Musashi’s frantic pleas, barks its head off and blows your cover. Bring a cup of coffee and watch the fun, but keep your hands on the controller! You still have more battle training to get through.
Learn Parry, Reflex Dodge, and Grab Reversal
Musashi flees the dojo’s forces and ends up cornered inside a small hut, triggering the next defensive tutorial phase:
How to Parry
Press L1/Guard right before an enemy’s weapon attack connects. Parrying is your bread-and-butter against armed strikes, and unlike normal block, a timed parry negates all chip damage, violently deflects the blade, and heavily drains the attacker’s stamina/posture, leaving them open for a lethal counter slash. Wait for the dojo thug to start his forward swing, click L1 right before the attack hits, and do this twice to finish the lesson.
How to Use Reflex Dodge
Press Circle/Dodge just before an unarmed strike lands. When opponents put their swords aside and attempt to throw hands or kicks, regular parrying won’t cut it. Time your dodge just as their fist or kick reaches you; Musashi will execute a Reflex Dodge, leaving behind an afterimage and moving out of harm’s way. This completely destabilizes the enemy’s stance and gives you a free opening to strike back. Successfully perform two Reflex Dodges to satisfy the counter.
How to Perform Grab Reversal (Countering Grabs)
Press Circle right before a grab connects to perform Grab Reversal. Grabs are dangerous unblockable maneuvers that cannot be parried or blocked. However, the enemy’s grabbing hand will flare with a bright blue glow. Do not dodge too early! Wait for the lunging grab to reach near your chest, then press the button to trigger a brutal Grab Reversal.
Musashi will snatch the attacker out of the air, grab him by the throat, and slam him to the ground. Execute this twice to complete the tutorial, then take down all thugs to continue forward.
Switch Targets and Use Environmental Objects
Right after the fight, Musashi will be chased by many thugs. Running for his life again, he ends up in a courtyard and gets surrounded by Yoshioka followers. Here, you learn spatial awareness and interactive hazards:
- Switch Lock-On Targets: Press R3 to lock onto an enemy and flick the Right Stick Left / Right to cycle between targets. Even when locked onto a foe in front of you, you can still block and deflect off-screen attacks from behind. Keep your guard up and cycle targets to track the most aggressive attacker.
- Use the Objects Around You: Interact with items in the arena that flash with a faint light.
- Wooden Plank: Approach a loose board lying in the mud and press Cross (X). Musashi will use his katana blade to flick the plank upright. Immediately press R1 to boot the board straight into an oncoming opponent, staggering them and dealing heavy posture damage.
- Hay Cart (Battering Ram): Sprint over to the two-wheeled wooden cart on the side of the courtyard and press Cross (X) to grab its handles. Steer the cart forward into the pack of goons (“Make way, you useless bastards!”), bowling over multiple enemies like bowling pins.
Defeat all Yoshioka followers as the game asks with quick light combos and heavy slashes. Just as you think you’ve earned a breather, another contingent of Yoshioka enforcers crashes through the perimeter gate.
Musashi sprints onto a narrow wooden walkway spanning a deep mountain ravine. Trapped on the planks, you trade blows with lunging swordsmen. During the clash, a big rotting tree trunk snaps from the cliffs above, crashing into the center of the bridge. The bridge breaks in two, sending the Yoshioka disciples plummeting into the misty chasm below. Musashi barely digs his heels into the surviving edge, looking back at the wreckage with an exasperated: “That was close.”
Face Sasaki Ganryu and the Genma
Musashi arrives in the mist-shrouded bamboo forest to catch his breath. From the fog behind him strides a flamboyant, arrogant figure sporting a wide-brimmed jingasa hat, an open floral kimono, and carrying a comically oversized nodachi (the legendary Clothes Drying Pole).
He is none other than Sasaki Ganryu, and it’s pretty obvious there’s some bad blood between them. Ganryu never gets the chance to settle things with Musashi. Before he can finish his villain monologue, a jagged, demonic blade erupts straight through his chest from behind. A demon Genma kills Ganryu, and then more of them emerge from the surrounding shadows.
Musashi draws his katana and fights for his life against this nightmare. While he lands a few desperate slashes and kicks, these demons are made of iron and demonic malice. Musashi is surrounded, disarmed, and impaled repeatedly through the chest and ribs by jagged Genma blades. Coughing up a torrent of blood, Musashi collapses face-down in the dirt. Everything fades to black.
The Man in White & The Oni Gauntlet
Musashi wakes up in a realm between life and death, floating in an otherworldly sea of blood beneath an ominous crimson moon, surrounded by floating Toro Nagashi funeral lanterns—the legendary Sanzu River (the threshold to Hell). The Man in White (a mysterious silver-haired man wearing an ornate, tattered white robe) drags Musashi’s drowned soul up out of the crimson tide: “Well… that could have gone better. To be specific, you were just on your way to hell when I pulled you up for a chat.”
The Man in White has an ancient, draconic relic: the Oni Gauntlet. He offers it to Musashi to grant him the power of the Oni so he can return to the world. Musashi stubbornly rejects demonic intervention (“I don’t need some monster’s power!”), but the nab isn’t asking: “When someone gives you a gift… you take it and say thank you!”
He forcibly clamps the golden Oni Gauntlet onto his right arm. The gauntlet bites into Musashi’s flesh, surging with blinding cosmic energy and binding to his soul.
Learn Issen Attack and Soul Absorption
Musashi returns to consciousness in the mortal realm. Black-and-green veins pulse across his skin, his fatal chest wounds have sealed into glowing gold scars, and the Oni Gauntlet is now bound to his forearm with a blue eye glowing upon its back. The Genma are still loitering around the corpses. Musashi picks up his katana, unleashes an explosive burst of blue Oni energy to knock them back, and prepares to test his newfound power.
Issen Attack
Press Square or Triangle immediately before an enemy strike connects. Issen is the high-risk, ultimate reward Onimusha mechanic. The window is tighter than a parry or a reflex dodge because you have to wait for the exact split-second before the hit lands.
When performed, Musashi slips inside the attack with blinding speed and executes a lethal flash of azure light that bisects the demon in an instant kill. Execute two Issen counters to complete the tutorial.
Souls Absorption
Hold L2 to channel the Oni Gauntlet’s vacuum vortex to suck nearby souls out of the air into your gauntlet.
- Red/White Souls: Fuel your Oni gauge and power up abilities.
- Yellow Souls: Crucial recovery orbs that restore Musashi’s health bar.
Tip: Enemies drop noticeably more Yellow Souls when your health is in the red, making it a built-in lifesaver during tense brawls.
Wipe out the remaining Genma to complete the opening area. Musashi attempts to pry off the Gauntlet, but a female voice speaking from the blue orb stops him and instructs him to find Ono Takamura at Rokudo Chinno-ji Temple. The Onimusha: Way of the Sword prologue concludes here. The temple cutscene takes you to the next story mission, The Ruckus at Rendaino.
